WEBVTT 00:00:01.240 --> 00:00:03.780 Good morning. 00:00:03.900 --> 00:00:08.590 it has been an eventful week for me, I tell you. 00:00:09.280 --> 00:00:15.060 I started working in retail a little over two years ago now, and the first Black Friday I worked. 00:00:15.060 --> 00:00:16.540 I worked in electronics at Sears. 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:24.540 And that night when I got home from work, I said, I am never going to work in retail on Black Friday again. 00:00:24.540 --> 00:00:25.240 This is the end. 00:00:26.660 --> 00:00:33.960 And then the next year after Black Friday, I said, I'm never going to work retail on Black Friday 00:00:33.960 --> 00:00:34.510 again. 00:00:36.120 --> 00:00:38.050 So then I went and got a second retail job. 00:00:39.020 --> 00:00:42.960 And then this Black Friday, I got to work two retail jobs on Black Friday. 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:50.580 And I am vowing once again before you that I will not work a Black Friday in retail again the whole week. 00:00:50.620 --> 00:00:51.580 It's not just the day. 00:00:51.620 --> 00:00:56.560 The day is strenuous because you wake up really early, but the whole week is just you're preparing for it. 00:00:57.200 --> 00:00:59.920 Everybody's all freaked out because, oh, we're going to have enough of this. 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:00.880 Does everybody know what's going on? 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:01.750 Oh, we're going to have so many problems. 00:01:01.900 --> 00:01:05.040 And everybody, everybody else stressing out, that makes you stress out. 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:07.220 And so it's been it's been a crazy week. 00:01:07.260 --> 00:01:14.340 But all throughout my the craziness that the week has been, there's just been little reminders and little glimpses 00:01:14.340 --> 00:01:21.380 that God's given me that have just brightened my week and helped me get through it and just been awesome 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:23.110 and really exciting. 00:01:23.860 --> 00:01:30.900 Monday night at Sears, I was sitting in the office talking to the store manager, getting our game plan together for what I needed to do for the 00:01:30.900 --> 00:01:32.800 warehouse to get that ready for Black Friday. 00:01:33.660 --> 00:01:39.150 And then we just started small talking, and out of nowhere, he says, hey, I got a question for you. 00:01:39.640 --> 00:01:40.480 I was like, okay. 00:01:41.580 --> 00:01:43.340 He's like, you're one of them born agains, aren't you? 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:48.660 And I was like, yeah, I guess, like kind of caught me off guard. 00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:49.700 But I was like, yeah, yeah. 00:01:49.700 --> 00:01:50.910 I was like, yeah, I'm a born again Christian. 00:01:52.180 --> 00:01:52.340 Yeah. 00:01:52.480 --> 00:01:54.170 He's like, what does that mean? 00:01:54.840 --> 00:01:56.390 Like, what does it mean to be born again? 00:01:56.580 --> 00:02:03.100 Why do you like And so my jaw dropped and I started like I was so excited I almost started crying. 00:02:04.820 --> 00:02:12.040 and so I took the next 15 to 20 minutes to explain to him what it means to be born again and how life is about a relationship with Christ, 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:13.940 and that it's nothing that we can do on our own. 00:02:13.960 --> 00:02:18.370 And I just got to point blank share the gospel with them for 15 or 20 minutes. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:20.620 And when I asked him, you know what? 00:02:20.920 --> 00:02:21.900 What brought this on? 00:02:22.580 --> 00:02:29.640 His stepson, had spent the week with or had spent some time, a 00:02:29.640 --> 00:02:36.820 few years with his, his now wife's ex-husband and his wife, so the other side of the family, and he said, 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:41.760 there are those born agains they go to a Baptist church and stuff, and there were those born agains. 00:02:42.140 --> 00:02:46.060 And when he came back, I noticed he does a lot of things really different that he never did before. 00:02:46.580 --> 00:02:50.000 Like now, instead of saying GD, he just says, gosh. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:55.800 And he gave me a couple other examples and he was like, why would he do that? 00:02:55.800 --> 00:02:56.490 Why would he change? 00:02:57.100 --> 00:03:04.240 And so then I got to explain to him, how after we accept Christ and we see the sacrifice that he's made for us, then it's not 00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:04.730 an obligation. 00:03:05.140 --> 00:03:07.540 We don't live a different life because we have to. 00:03:07.700 --> 00:03:09.880 And we don't live a good life because if we don't, we won't get to heaven. 00:03:10.040 --> 00:03:13.520 But we live a good life because it's out of gratitude for what Christ had done. 00:03:13.560 --> 00:03:16.140 And I was so excited when we got done talking. 00:03:16.140 --> 00:03:19.900 I, like, ran to the back and grabbed my cell phone and texted Greg and was like, y'all can't believe what I just got to. 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:21.080 I was so excited. 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:21.400 It was awesome. 00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:25.760 so last week I was really excited. 00:03:26.920 --> 00:03:28.200 and this week I'm excited again. 00:03:28.220 --> 00:03:31.520 And it's just it's awesome to see what God's doing here in Utah. 00:03:32.300 --> 00:03:35.140 just the fact that we have the chance to purchase a bar. 00:03:36.540 --> 00:03:41.340 and that we have a chance to be the first free standing church in northern Utah County. 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:42.150 It's just unbelievable. 00:03:43.160 --> 00:03:49.560 And the sign that is to the community and to the world around us that, look, God is working in us. 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:51.720 God is here and he is real. 00:03:52.860 --> 00:03:53.800 and we're here to stay. 00:03:54.340 --> 00:04:01.560 It just blows my mind thinking that two years ago now, I came out for a week to visit 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:07.280 Nathaniel, and I helped Nathaniel and Mark get the Swift printing room ready, which was about as big as this stage. 00:04:08.550 --> 00:04:11.850 and we painted and did all that and got all that ready. 00:04:12.060 --> 00:04:19.160 And then a year later when I moved out here, two months, we're getting this building ready to move in because we're already growing to past capacity 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:19.560 there. 00:04:20.579 --> 00:04:26.080 And then now another year later from, from the time that we move into this building, we're already looking. 00:04:26.080 --> 00:04:27.790 We got to keep, keep getting bigger. 00:04:28.420 --> 00:04:30.440 And it's just unbelievable to me to see what God's doing. 00:04:30.660 --> 00:04:32.150 And that's why it's exciting. 00:04:33.060 --> 00:04:35.780 And that's one of the reasons I'm excited today. 00:04:35.820 --> 00:04:42.200 But I am also excited today because we get to continue our series on Cross side, living a life that is solely focused on the cross. 00:04:42.780 --> 00:04:46.290 Now, last week we looked at the cross and we asked the question, why the cross? 00:04:46.660 --> 00:04:53.940 Why do we as Christians, glory and find all of our hope and all of our assurance in a 00:04:53.960 --> 00:04:59.660 horrendous torture device that was brutal and used to kill people. 00:04:59.780 --> 00:05:01.300 Why do we why do we revel in that? 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:02.120 Why do we glory in that? 00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:02.840 Why do we hope in that? 00:05:03.860 --> 00:05:09.820 And the reason that we hope in that is because it's on that cross that Christ atoned for our sins. 00:05:09.880 --> 00:05:17.220 And we looked in the Old Testament at Leviticus chapter 16, and we saw that in the Old Testament once a year, they had a day of atonement where 00:05:17.220 --> 00:05:20.840 the high priest would make sacrifices and atone for the sins of the people. 00:05:21.340 --> 00:05:26.380 They would offer a blood sacrifice to cover the sins, and they would sacrifice one goat and the other goat. 00:05:27.020 --> 00:05:31.240 The high priest would lay his hands on it and confess all the sins of the people of the nation of Israel. 00:05:31.720 --> 00:05:35.120 And then they would send that goat out to represent the removal of the sins. 00:05:35.900 --> 00:05:39.260 And then we looked at how Christ fulfills both of those sacrifices. 00:05:40.280 --> 00:05:47.400 And his blood on the cross not only covers our sins, but when he was on the cross, he took on all of the sin of the world, and 00:05:47.400 --> 00:05:52.220 he who knew no sin became sin that we might become his righteousness. 00:05:52.820 --> 00:05:55.050 And he took our sins away, and he made that atonement. 00:05:55.480 --> 00:05:58.760 And that's why we look to the cross and we glory in this cross. 00:06:00.700 --> 00:06:06.160 But if we glory in the cross, then that means that we have to have a reaction to the cross. 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:10.960 We know why we why the cross is significant, but how then do we react to the cross? 00:06:11.500 --> 00:06:15.360 And what should our what should our response be to the cross and what Christ did? 00:06:16.500 --> 00:06:18.100 I turn to Hebrews 13. 00:06:18.760 --> 00:06:20.510 We're going to start reading in verse nine. 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:32.760 In Hebrews chapter 13 and verse nine. 00:06:33.280 --> 00:06:34.500 We're going to read through 13. 00:06:34.500 --> 00:06:41.660 It says, do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods 00:06:41.660 --> 00:06:45.520 through which those who are were so occupied were not benefited. 00:06:47.320 --> 00:06:51.340 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:59.840 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside 00:06:59.840 --> 00:07:00.560 the camp. 00:07:01.780 --> 00:07:07.720 Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered outside the gate. 00:07:08.840 --> 00:07:12.840 So let us go to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. 00:07:14.200 --> 00:07:20.200 So in verses 11 and 12, it's referring back to what we just read last week in Leviticus 16. 00:07:21.200 --> 00:07:28.360 If you look in Leviticus 1627, it says, but the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood 00:07:28.360 --> 00:07:32.620 was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be taken outside the camp. 00:07:33.200 --> 00:07:36.840 And they shall burn their hides, their flesh, and their refuse in the fire. 00:07:38.440 --> 00:07:45.740 And just like those animals were taken outside of the camp and burned, so that sin would be out of the camp, and so that it 00:07:45.780 --> 00:07:49.850 was away from the camp, so Christ was taken outside of the city gate when he was crucified. 00:07:50.460 --> 00:07:51.350 They didn't do it in the city. 00:07:51.440 --> 00:07:53.860 They took him out through the gate to the hill called Golgotha. 00:07:54.260 --> 00:07:55.620 And they crucified him. 00:07:55.640 --> 00:07:57.900 And that's where Christ made his sacrifice for us. 00:07:59.300 --> 00:08:05.400 So our response to the sacrifice that Christ made and our response to the cross is found in verse 13. 00:08:05.960 --> 00:08:09.180 It says, so let us go to him outside the camp. 00:08:11.140 --> 00:08:15.880 The word camp here actually represents two different things to us today. 00:08:17.480 --> 00:08:24.880 the first thing that it represents is society or culture, 00:08:25.020 --> 00:08:26.400 the world that we live in. 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:36.960 If you look at verse nine, the warning is, do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings when 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:37.919 we're in the camp. 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:39.740 Camp represents society in the world. 00:08:39.740 --> 00:08:46.780 When we're in society in the world, the world has a different teaching, a different understanding of life, a different viewpoint than what God has for us and 00:08:46.800 --> 00:08:47.620 what Christ shows us. 00:08:49.380 --> 00:08:51.120 And it says, don't be carried away by that. 00:08:51.560 --> 00:08:58.720 When you go out of the camp, you get away from that teaching the world today teaches us something kind of along the lines of instant 00:08:58.720 --> 00:08:59.520 gratification. 00:09:00.440 --> 00:09:01.780 If it makes you happy, do it. 00:09:01.780 --> 00:09:02.240 It's okay. 00:09:04.820 --> 00:09:06.360 as long as you're happy, it doesn't matter. 00:09:07.080 --> 00:09:07.820 You're a good enough person. 00:09:08.100 --> 00:09:09.540 It's okay to be a little bit bad. 00:09:09.660 --> 00:09:10.710 You're generally okay. 00:09:11.800 --> 00:09:13.400 And basically, it's. 00:09:13.500 --> 00:09:14.080 It's all about you. 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:16.860 As long as long as life's good for you. 00:09:17.340 --> 00:09:18.140 Nobody else matters. 00:09:18.220 --> 00:09:19.040 Nothing else matters. 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:20.840 And that's what society teaches us. 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:22.600 And that's what the world around us teaches us. 00:09:23.180 --> 00:09:24.090 You see it on commercials. 00:09:24.540 --> 00:09:24.960 You see it. 00:09:25.260 --> 00:09:26.300 You hear it on the radio. 00:09:26.380 --> 00:09:26.990 You hear it in music. 00:09:27.800 --> 00:09:29.680 It's all around us on billboards. 00:09:30.400 --> 00:09:31.940 It's instant satisfaction. 00:09:33.180 --> 00:09:34.120 Nobody else matters. 00:09:34.600 --> 00:09:35.580 You're your own boss. 00:09:35.640 --> 00:09:36.000 You're you. 00:09:36.140 --> 00:09:37.760 You decide what's right and what's wrong. 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:39.930 And if something's right for you right now. 00:09:40.400 --> 00:09:41.680 But down the road, it's wrong for you. 00:09:41.680 --> 00:09:42.180 That's okay. 00:09:42.180 --> 00:09:42.980 You can change your mind. 00:09:42.980 --> 00:09:43.510 There are no absolutes. 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:46.580 But when we leave the camp, we. 00:09:46.760 --> 00:09:47.740 We leave that behind. 00:09:47.780 --> 00:09:52.100 We leave that teaching and philosophy behind and we change our mind. 00:09:53.340 --> 00:10:00.460 And in Romans chapter 12, verse two, Paul says, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by 00:10:00.460 --> 00:10:04.620 the renewing of our mind in order for us to get out of the world and to leave the camp behind. 00:10:05.100 --> 00:10:08.220 In order for us to do that, our mindset has to change. 00:10:08.220 --> 00:10:08.980 It has to be transformed. 00:10:10.180 --> 00:10:12.640 The way that you transform your life is by renewing your mind. 00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:13.060 Okay? 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:17.280 Your thought process becomes your action process and your word process. 00:10:17.540 --> 00:10:22.080 What you're thinking is going to come out either physically in your actions or verbally in your words. 00:10:23.560 --> 00:10:28.510 And in order for us to live a life that Christ wants, we need to leave this world behind. 00:10:28.680 --> 00:10:30.460 Stop thinking the way the world wants us to think. 00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:32.260 Start thinking like Christ. 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:37.740 And Philippians chapter two, verses five through eight Paul tells us this. 00:10:37.800 --> 00:10:40.400 He says, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ. 00:10:40.920 --> 00:10:42.070 Think this way. 00:10:42.620 --> 00:10:44.320 This is how you are supposed to think. 00:10:44.880 --> 00:10:46.640 Okay, not the way that they tell you. 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:47.730 Not instant gratification. 00:10:48.160 --> 00:10:49.940 And you're your own boss and it's all about you. 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:51.540 Think like Christ did. 00:10:52.500 --> 00:10:53.440 So how did Christ think? 00:10:53.560 --> 00:10:54.430 Paul goes on to explain. 00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:56.820 He says, let this mind be in you. 00:10:56.880 --> 00:11:04.260 That was also in Christ, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 00:11:04.440 --> 00:11:09.520 but emptied himself, taking the form of a bond servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 00:11:10.060 --> 00:11:17.060 Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a 00:11:17.060 --> 00:11:17.160 cross. 00:11:19.900 --> 00:11:21.800 So no longer is life all about me. 00:11:21.900 --> 00:11:24.460 No longer do I live as long as I am happy. 00:11:26.260 --> 00:11:29.960 I look at what Christ did and it says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ. 00:11:30.400 --> 00:11:31.720 He gave up being God. 00:11:32.180 --> 00:11:38.000 He was in heaven, where all he had to do was sit there and have tens of thousands of angels sing his praise all day long. 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:39.880 Not a bad gig. 00:11:40.080 --> 00:11:44.400 You just sit there and everybody tells you how amazing and how awesome you are and how holy you are. 00:11:45.300 --> 00:11:53.280 And he left that, and he comes down in the form of a helpless baby, lives a life as a man, learned 00:11:53.280 --> 00:11:56.120 the trade of carpentry, which is not an easy trade. 00:11:56.700 --> 00:11:57.290 It was a rough trade. 00:11:57.400 --> 00:12:04.480 It was hard work, lived the perfect life, ministered, taught and 00:12:04.540 --> 00:12:05.480 preached grace. 00:12:06.060 --> 00:12:09.660 And then he sacrificed on the cross for you and me. 00:12:10.060 --> 00:12:12.960 He gave everything for us. 00:12:13.240 --> 00:12:15.040 And that's the kind of mindset that we need to have. 00:12:15.140 --> 00:12:16.420 That is our response to the cross. 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:23.760 As we get out of this me first society and we get into this, everyone else first society, and we begin to sacrifice and 00:12:23.760 --> 00:12:27.250 we begin to give, even if it hurts. 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:31.700 Romans 15 three says, for even Christ did not please himself. 00:12:32.180 --> 00:12:35.420 But it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. 00:12:37.820 --> 00:12:43.820 The sins of us when we sin against God fell on Christ and he didn't do it to please himself. 00:12:45.260 --> 00:12:45.930 He did it for others. 00:12:47.820 --> 00:12:54.940 Second Corinthians eight nine says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was 00:12:54.940 --> 00:13:02.140 rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. 00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:13.100 When we look at the cross and we see the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross, our response has to be, it's 00:13:13.100 --> 00:13:18.260 not about me, it's about the person beside me. 00:13:19.160 --> 00:13:20.960 It's about my wife, my kids, my family. 00:13:22.060 --> 00:13:24.620 It's about my coworkers, my schoolmates. 00:13:25.900 --> 00:13:29.440 And it's about showing them the cross and why the cross is so important. 00:13:31.460 --> 00:13:32.330 It's about sacrificing. 00:13:36.160 --> 00:13:38.540 When's the last time you sacrificed for someone? 00:13:40.920 --> 00:13:43.880 When's the last time you sacrificed something for Christ? 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:50.340 You know, right now we're doing, we're raising money for two different things. 00:13:52.500 --> 00:14:00.020 Do you realize that if you gave up one fast food meal a week for one month out of the year, you 00:14:00.020 --> 00:14:02.200 could feed an orphan in India for an entire year. 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:05.360 That's it. 00:14:06.160 --> 00:14:08.300 $6 a week for one month. 00:14:08.840 --> 00:14:10.620 And you could feed an orphan for an entire year. 00:14:12.360 --> 00:14:17.400 It's not a big sacrifice, but it makes a huge difference when we're willing to think of. 00:14:18.460 --> 00:14:20.340 Instead of me, let me think about them. 00:14:20.520 --> 00:14:27.740 Across the world, living in poverty and that what they get each day for that for one year, what feeds 00:14:27.740 --> 00:14:28.860 them and sustains them. 00:14:29.880 --> 00:14:37.040 It's a little bit of rice, a couple of strips of chicken, and maybe some 00:14:37.040 --> 00:14:38.720 some vegetables or fruit. 00:14:41.220 --> 00:14:48.440 That's all it takes is us sacrificing a super sized number one at the drive through for them to get that for 00:14:48.440 --> 00:14:50.270 a year, and they're happy with it. 00:14:50.600 --> 00:14:51.900 But are we willing to sacrifice? 00:14:52.200 --> 00:14:57.000 Is the cross so important to us that we're willing to give that up for someone else? 00:14:59.940 --> 00:15:07.100 We're trying to raise money to purchase a building so that we can be the first freestanding church in northern 00:15:07.100 --> 00:15:07.920 Utah County. 00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:09.960 That's awesome. 00:15:11.620 --> 00:15:16.160 The only way that's going to happen is if we're willing to sacrifice for it. 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:20.180 Nathaniel and Stacy are back east right now. 00:15:20.180 --> 00:15:22.620 He's actually preaching at the church that I grew up in West Virginia. 00:15:23.220 --> 00:15:30.040 He probably just got done preaching this morning, but he's asking people back East who don't even know half of us. 00:15:30.400 --> 00:15:38.780 He's asking them, Will you sacrifice so that we can do the work of God, so that we can show the entire state of Utah that 00:15:38.780 --> 00:15:40.360 God you're here and God you're working. 00:15:40.360 --> 00:15:42.980 Will you sacrifice so that we can do that? 00:15:43.780 --> 00:15:46.920 And people back east are sacrificing their giving. 00:15:47.920 --> 00:15:50.210 We've got a lot of money coming in from back east. 00:15:52.160 --> 00:15:55.080 Are we willing to sacrifice for ourselves? 00:15:55.160 --> 00:15:58.520 Are we willing to sacrifice of ourselves to see this happen? 00:15:59.140 --> 00:16:07.460 If people that are thousands of miles away that have never even seen Lehi, Utah, that have never even seen Salt Lake City are 00:16:07.460 --> 00:16:08.410 willing to sacrifice. 00:16:08.600 --> 00:16:15.640 Are we willing to sacrifice when we see the cross and the sacrifice that Christ gave, it compels us to sacrifice and to 00:16:15.720 --> 00:16:16.320 give back. 00:16:16.620 --> 00:16:17.980 Our mindset needs to change. 00:16:17.980 --> 00:16:25.060 We need to get out of the camp that is society and the world and our culture that tells us to live a comfortable life and make sure that you're 00:16:25.060 --> 00:16:25.510 okay. 00:16:26.580 --> 00:16:30.370 And we say, I don't care if I'm living a comfortable life, I want to give it all and I want to give it to Christ. 00:16:31.400 --> 00:16:38.400 And even if it might hurt, and it might mean that I don't get my number one with a large fry and a couple of extra apple 00:16:38.400 --> 00:16:40.340 pies, then so be it. 00:16:41.040 --> 00:16:42.760 I'm going to sacrifice that little bit. 00:16:44.740 --> 00:16:52.080 If you read in Philippians chapter three and verse five, Paul explains to us the sacrifice 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:53.640 that he made. 00:16:56.740 --> 00:16:59.400 Philippians three five says, This is Paul. 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:04.060 He's explaining to them why he doesn't care about the things in the flesh that he's earned. 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:05.150 And he begins. 00:17:05.640 --> 00:17:11.220 And he says, in verse four, although I might I might have confidence in the flesh. 00:17:11.220 --> 00:17:14.980 If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more. 00:17:15.220 --> 00:17:21.780 I have earned more on this world than most other people, and my good deeds would have been way better than anybody else's to get me to heaven. 00:17:22.619 --> 00:17:23.380 And he gives us a list. 00:17:23.380 --> 00:17:30.440 He says, circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law of 00:17:30.440 --> 00:17:33.200 Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the church. 00:17:33.600 --> 00:17:36.230 As to the righteousness which is in the law found blameless. 00:17:37.300 --> 00:17:42.320 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 00:17:43.460 --> 00:17:46.500 He says, look, guys, I'm a Jew of all Jews. 00:17:47.600 --> 00:17:50.660 If anybody had anything in this world, it was me. 00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:55.720 He obeyed the law better than anyone. 00:17:55.940 --> 00:17:56.560 He was a Pharisee. 00:17:57.720 --> 00:17:59.800 He trained and was taught by a priest. 00:18:00.800 --> 00:18:03.720 He had political and religious power. 00:18:04.980 --> 00:18:05.260 He. 00:18:05.460 --> 00:18:06.200 He had it made. 00:18:06.360 --> 00:18:06.880 He was set. 00:18:08.620 --> 00:18:15.780 But he says all that stuff that I gained, that comfortable life, that power, that respect that people had for 00:18:15.780 --> 00:18:17.470 me, it's all loss. 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:20.280 He goes on to say he calls it garbage. 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:23.520 It's rubbish compared to Christ. 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:31.540 And he gave up everything on that road to Damascus, when Paul was going to persecute the church, when he was going to kill Christians. 00:18:32.800 --> 00:18:37.040 And Christ stopped him and said, Saul, which his name later changed to Paul. 00:18:37.580 --> 00:18:39.900 He said, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? 00:18:40.940 --> 00:18:45.460 And Saul's conversion experience, he realizes that it's all about Jesus. 00:18:46.700 --> 00:18:47.300 And you know what? 00:18:47.780 --> 00:18:52.460 I'm going to give up all this, and I'm going to live a life that's pleasing to him. 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:57.200 And when he did that, people hated him. 00:18:58.920 --> 00:18:59.900 Okay, think about it. 00:18:59.960 --> 00:19:03.100 Put yourself in Paul's shoes and think about what sacrifice this is. 00:19:03.140 --> 00:19:03.300 Okay. 00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:09.600 One day you hate this group of people so much that you're trying to kill them and put them in prison and persecute them. 00:19:10.900 --> 00:19:12.900 And this group of people over here likes you for that. 00:19:14.080 --> 00:19:21.240 Now all of a sudden, you're on this side, and this group of people now hates you and the people that you were trying to kill and persecute, you're 00:19:21.240 --> 00:19:22.710 trying to be friends with, and they're like, what are you doing? 00:19:23.560 --> 00:19:26.220 Just yesterday, you were trying to take me to jail and kill me. 00:19:26.520 --> 00:19:27.730 And now you're trying to be my friend. 00:19:28.300 --> 00:19:34.100 And it took him a long time to get the Christians, the group of Christians, to. 00:19:34.520 --> 00:19:35.300 To understand that. 00:19:35.300 --> 00:19:36.280 No, look, I'm for real. 00:19:36.440 --> 00:19:37.620 Christ changed my life. 00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:43.380 And he went through a time where he had no friends because they didn't want to trust him. 00:19:43.960 --> 00:19:44.600 And they thought he was crazy. 00:19:45.020 --> 00:19:47.520 And now they wanted to kill him because now he's on the other side. 00:19:48.740 --> 00:19:55.060 And Paul sacrificed all those things that he had worked his whole life to earn respect in the community, political power, religious power. 00:19:55.700 --> 00:19:57.460 And he said, I don't want any of that. 00:19:57.460 --> 00:20:04.800 I want Christ, I want a sacrifice so that I can have Jesus verse, verse eight. 00:20:04.820 --> 00:20:12.060 Then in Philippians three it says, more, more than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value 00:20:12.060 --> 00:20:19.140 of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I 00:20:19.140 --> 00:20:19.840 may gain Christ. 00:20:20.380 --> 00:20:24.020 When we look at Paul's life and we see everything that he had, and he loses it all. 00:20:24.920 --> 00:20:26.400 We might think, man, that might have been. 00:20:26.500 --> 00:20:28.220 That must have been so hard and so tough. 00:20:28.320 --> 00:20:29.610 But Paul says I count it as rubbish. 00:20:29.660 --> 00:20:30.220 I don't even care. 00:20:30.920 --> 00:20:32.640 It was like I lost my garbage. 00:20:33.180 --> 00:20:36.840 Somebody took the garbage out of my kitchen, I lost that, who cares? 00:20:37.580 --> 00:20:39.600 Because knowing Christ was so much more important. 00:20:41.840 --> 00:20:48.900 And when Paul left society and left this world and the things that it had to offer, he left the safety of 00:20:48.900 --> 00:20:49.450 conformity. 00:20:49.540 --> 00:20:54.890 When we conform to this world and we live a life that this world tells us to live, it's pretty safe. 00:20:55.140 --> 00:20:56.160 People aren't going to hassle you. 00:20:56.220 --> 00:20:57.000 People aren't going to bother you. 00:20:58.480 --> 00:21:02.620 But what Paul shows us is the second application of the word camp. 00:21:03.900 --> 00:21:06.790 The Greek word for camp here is the word parabole. 00:21:09.040 --> 00:21:11.900 And it means a battle array. 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:13.840 An encampment or barracks. 00:21:18.460 --> 00:21:19.180 Sorry, guys, a little. 00:21:19.580 --> 00:21:22.790 I'll skip back so you guys can catch up on some of those, fill in the blanks. 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:29.580 but this word for camp shows us that we need to leave safety. 00:21:30.020 --> 00:21:31.380 The safety of our comfort zone. 00:21:31.380 --> 00:21:31.540 Okay. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:32.780 It would be like what? 00:21:33.040 --> 00:21:39.360 What the writer of Hebrews is telling us is we need to go to Christ outside of your foxhole. 00:21:40.060 --> 00:21:40.280 Okay? 00:21:40.280 --> 00:21:40.750 We're in a battle. 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:47.400 There's a fight going on, and he says, get up out of your foxhole and run ahead of everybody. 00:21:48.980 --> 00:21:56.410 Get out of that same year before you feel safe and run to cry to Christ. 00:21:57.080 --> 00:21:58.480 We're going through study. 00:21:58.500 --> 00:21:58.820 Study. 00:21:58.980 --> 00:22:00.680 He's taking us through. 00:22:01.860 --> 00:22:04.590 And they went back to Jerusalem and built the walls. 00:22:04.740 --> 00:22:06.920 Because the city without walls was defenseless and helpless. 00:22:07.760 --> 00:22:11.180 In a city without walls wasn't recognized as anything. 00:22:11.520 --> 00:22:17.520 It was just a bunch of people that anybody could come in and raid and maraud and rob all they wanted. 00:22:18.340 --> 00:22:19.620 But the walls represent safety. 00:22:19.780 --> 00:22:21.340 And Christ says, get outside of the walls. 00:22:24.540 --> 00:22:25.610 Go where it's dangerous. 00:22:26.840 --> 00:22:28.030 And he calls us to sacrifice. 00:22:28.700 --> 00:22:29.960 Go ahead and skip ahead here. 00:22:34.100 --> 00:22:38.320 so the second thing that the word camp represents to us is safety or comfort. 00:22:41.560 --> 00:22:48.780 And when we when we leave that safety, Christ told his disciples, if you flip to Matthew 16 00:22:48.780 --> 00:22:56.000 or Matthew ten, I'm sorry, verse 16 through 25, Christ straight up told his disciples, it's 00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:56.560 going to be rough. 00:22:57.680 --> 00:22:59.050 He didn't hold any punches back. 00:22:59.720 --> 00:23:02.380 He says, behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. 00:23:02.660 --> 00:23:10.420 So be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves, but beware of men, for 00:23:10.420 --> 00:23:14.900 they will hand you over to the courts, and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will. 00:23:15.280 --> 00:23:21.250 You will even be brought before governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 00:23:22.220 --> 00:23:28.740 But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say, for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. 00:23:29.820 --> 00:23:32.200 For it is not you who speak, but it is the. 00:23:32.600 --> 00:23:34.960 It is the spirit of your father who speaks in you. 00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:43.220 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father, his child and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 00:23:44.540 --> 00:23:47.260 You will be hated by all because of my name. 00:23:48.220 --> 00:23:53.120 But it is the one who endures to that end who will be saved. 00:23:54.840 --> 00:23:58.740 Christ says, all right, you guys are going to go out and you're going to teach everybody what I just taught you. 00:23:58.740 --> 00:24:01.100 You're going to tell people what I've been teaching you and what I've been showing you. 00:24:02.200 --> 00:24:06.020 And when you do that, you're going to be like a sheep in the middle of a wolf pack. 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:10.830 It's not a good place to be. 00:24:11.900 --> 00:24:13.560 You're going to be hated by.